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Do You Want To See An Otter Have A Birthday Party?
33 Plays2 years ago
Chris, Fax & Garrett are closing out the year by bringing you some lists of some of the best stuff in wrestling this year as well as handing out a few awards! Who will win the Cole Radrick's Pants award?? Only one way to find out!
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Transcript
Introduction & Sickness Humor
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender, and with me, as always, Chris Miggs and Jimmy Fax. Ooh. Yeah. End of the year on a high note. And we're lucky to have you right now, because it sounds like you may have gone to another organized play event. You may have licked some sorry pieces that have been contaminated. What's going on?
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I was kind of sick a couple of weeks ago. I think it's just, you know, the holidays was around a lot, a lot of children. Not covid took the covid test, but me and my wife were both like last night. She was just like, oh, you're just tired. And I'm like, no, I have that feeling that you get when you're actually sick. And then we had a big night tonight planned and like this morning when she woke up.
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm just like, how are you doing? And she's like, are you saying we're canceling tonight? I'm like, I didn't say anything about canceling tonight. She's like, I think you're thinking about canceling tonight. I'm like, I'm guessing you're feeling sick. And she hasn't left bed. I'm leaving bed just for this podcast and I'm returning right back to bed.
Wrestling Event Anecdotes
00:01:44
Speaker
That being said, if she hadn't canceled, you were going to go contaminate that party. I could tell.
00:01:50
Speaker
I was going to go to the Starbucks, but it's a Starbucks where they have a lot of children's birthday parties. Well, children and elderly people. There's going to be that person that turns 100 on January 1st. I was just going to just spray my fluids all over him.
00:02:10
Speaker
I was projectile vomited on yesterday, so happy Christmas, happy boxing day to me. By a child or? By a Canadian child at that, actually, happy boxing day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, by my own child. Okay, okay, okay.
00:02:29
Speaker
So it wasn't like just a horrible accident out on the subway. No, no, just yeah, just to just chill in and people projectile vomiting on me. Although, Garrett, we were watching when you and I both watched some of the H2O show last night.
00:02:44
Speaker
And with Sawyer Wreck versus Matt Tremont. And there was a guy during Tremont's entrance that was just like chugging from a bottle of whiskey. And I was like, dude, do not puke on Matt Tremont right before he goes to wrestle this match. Or maybe would that have been the perfect way for it to have gone? Ooh, maybe.
00:03:04
Speaker
Maybe. See, maybe that, that should be a punishment for one of us, is you have to go to, what's the naughty promotion, XPW? XPW. XPW and finish a bottle of whiskey. And I feel like by the end of the night, like, it seems like it would be hard to get kicked out of one of those shows. There's so much horrible going on that, you know, just, uh, just enjoy it.
Admiration for Wrestlers
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah. So we are just, should we talk about the Sawyer Wreck Matt Tremont thing for just a second?
00:03:32
Speaker
I mean, I don't think we have a ton to say about it. So we can I feel like that won't totally derail our year-end show No, I'm just I'm happy that it happened. You know, it wasn't like I love her. I love her. I'm professing my love right now I told you
00:03:49
Speaker
that when she comes out, everything goes slow motion. It becomes like in Wayne's world, I hear Dreamweaver. It's, I don't know, she is my death match to Biggie, my Elizabeth the Biggie of death match. I love a tall lady and I love a tall lady that bleeds. I have found my new type. I have abandoned my family. And I'm in search of a tall death match lady, if Sawyer Wreck is,
00:04:18
Speaker
Not interested? I'm sure there's other tall deathmatch ladies in the sea. I feel like you, I saw the new Avatar and I feel like maybe you and James Cameron have that in common because it definitely feels like he has a thing for tall blue-skinned cat people. And they kind of, they throw down a lot. There's a lot of weapons. I don't, not really bleeding per se, but a lot of violence. So maybe, maybe Sawyer Wreck can find her way into Avatar three, four or five.
00:04:47
Speaker
Now, is there any character in I haven't seen Avatar facts. So is there a character in Avatar like a tall blue lady who hits a tall, a small kind of Smurf like man just over and over with light tubes during Avatar?
00:05:05
Speaker
No, I mean, there is kind of a small like teenage human that just kind of hangs out with the avatars and definitely gets hurt, but not by any of the female avatars. He's on the avatars side, not played by a young Jimmy Lloyd, just to be clear. Because he didn't get the part in the audition. He tried. God damn it. He tried. Well, they're going to reverse age him. They're going to bring in current Jimmy Lloyd for the last Avatar movie and then use the technology to de-age him back to De Niro's son age.
00:05:35
Speaker
The technology eventually is going to tap out when De Niro hits, you know, 90 years old and like, sorry, bud, we couldn't get you that young. We had to bring in somebody to play young you. Here he is. And he's like, oh, fuck that kid. That kid was in the corner eating paint while we were filming those scenes on The Good Shepherd.
00:05:56
Speaker
Or we're gonna find out De Niro's been dead for like six years and he sold his digital likeness to Kingwin who have been licensing him out to do just fuckers spin-off movies.
CGI in Movies & Wrestling
00:06:10
Speaker
I mean, in the last Scorsese movie, the Irishman, he's basically CGI that entire movie. That's kind of a giveaway. That is kind of, you know, that is the vibe of King Gwen, of the guy who hosts King Gwen is that his full dream, like his greatest dream in life would be to be in a Meet the Fockers movie. If he could be like the third guy with like Stiller and De Niro, and he could be like De Niro's friend or something, that would be his like life peak.
00:06:38
Speaker
Like he would be like, I'm good. I'm putting everything else now. I'm just, I'm just hanging out after this. Uh, the match was, the match was enjoyable. Um, again, she just, she hit him with a lot of light tubes. There was some barbed wire stuff and a couple of big spots at the end. One of the things I thought was weird was that, uh, she chokes lamb treemont.
00:07:00
Speaker
And that seemed like it might be the end. And then Tremont's lady broke it up the first time. And then she chokeslammed him like off a ladder. And Tremont's lady just watched the pin. And I was like, no, I'm pretty clear. It's pretty clear he's gonna lose to that. I don't know why you broke it up the first time and not the other, but she's just standing there. It was like, maybe she was just like, well, Tremont's dead now from giving up.
00:07:28
Speaker
which did end up setting up a match between her and Sawyer at a deathmatch tournament, which I just checked our email.
00:07:37
Speaker
Matt Tremont has not gotten back to us about being sponsors to sponsor Sawyer Wreck. They're probably still trying to stop the bleeding at this point. He's still blinded, punching the air. That's my favorite Tremont move. Nobody else does that. When he gets dazed, he just starts slowly punching the air in front of him. I was walking into a dark room hoping there's no monsters.
00:08:02
Speaker
Maybe he did try to email you, but he uses Zencaster as his email provider, and they just stopped doing that a while ago. Or alternatively, he's like Shane Douglas. There's just some random indie promotion he worked for like a year and a half ago, and that's just his personal contact page now. Oh, fuck.
00:08:24
Speaker
All right.
Year in Wrestling Review
00:08:25
Speaker
All right. We want to get as much facts in here as we can before we get into our lists and awards, right? That's the point of today's episode. It's been a big year, guys. A lot has happened in pro wrestling. One, maybe the most important, predetermined is back.
00:08:41
Speaker
predetermined is back. But so much other shit happened. Good matches, bad matches, just the weirdness. I feel like this was the weirdest year in pro wrestling in quite some time. It is one of those years that in the inevitable pro wrestling history book that's written of the 20th and 21st century, there's going to be a lot on this year.
00:09:05
Speaker
Well, although it's interesting, you say it's the weirdest year, Garrett, but there was a year just two years ago where most wrestling shows took place not in front of people. And yet I would still say this year was more unexpected. No, I agree. Well, once you get past that sort of weirdness and all that happened there, yeah, there is a certain well, and that was actually part of the weird things of 2020 is the weird sameness that happened in wrestling where it became
00:09:32
Speaker
especially for things that weren't really like indie wrestling, just just you're like, there's no people here. This year felt like it was a real reshuffling when they tell that especially I think back to me when they write that history book and there's a couple of chapters probably on the history of AW versus WWE.
00:09:52
Speaker
I think this is going to be a year that has, gets a big chunk of time, like a big chunk of it. Yeah. And by the way, the cover of that book and like kids will obviously have to put like the brown paper bag over it, you know, cause it's got to be, but the cover of the book before they cover it is definitely like the Hogan slamming Andre from WrestleMania three, only they Photoshop out Andre and just put in Vince's dick.
00:10:18
Speaker
That's the biggest story, right? That's the most ramifications. And thank God for 4K, so you can tell how red the penis hole is. I was assuming, facts, that the cover of this book is just CM Punk slamming a muffin covered in blood. So many things it could be. God. I mean, I don't want to get into it, but that might be Madge of the Year is CM Punk versus that muffin.
00:10:47
Speaker
Like that was that's good shit. It was a squash. It was a squash. He dominated, really dominated. And then after he dominated, he put him over, told you to go get him. It could be a a steal losing a loser has prize match where you just no pride, no self respect. You lost it.
00:11:13
Speaker
OK, so how do I know each of us made a couple lists? I made some awards, so maybe in between lists. Maybe I give out an award each time. Sounds good to me. Sounds good to me. Vex, why don't you start with one of your lists?
00:11:31
Speaker
Alright, well, I'm gonna go this one is more if this is a legitimately informative list. I know people sometimes think we're jokey. I made a list of the top 10 most essential YouTube channels for wrestling fans, you know, because now with fight plus
00:11:49
Speaker
Um, there's really no need to ever pay for indie wrestling again, right? Like beyond fight plus. So it's kind of like, well, when it's, I sometimes want something that's not on fight plus, it's not on WWE network. It's not on my DVR with like AEW. It's like, well, where do I go? I go to, I go to YouTube and there's also some, a lot of resources that aren't just wrestling matches too.
Wrestling Content Online
00:12:10
Speaker
So I'm going to start. Really? You can learn to build a shelf. You can learn. You can find out about Jimmy Lloyd's entire filmography, I'm sure. I learned how to build a Spider-Man bike on YouTube on Christmas Eve. So I again, as we've well covered on this podcast, I'm a big analog gamer board gamer. I have not read a board game rule book in about seven years because of YouTube. It's the powers of YouTube.
00:12:41
Speaker
Anyway, I have five honorable mentions, and we'll get into the top 10. I'll try to go quick here. I got to put WWE on the list of this honorable mention, you know, because they actually do a surprisingly large amount of old matches. So if you kind of just want your Mr. Perfect fix, but you don't want to actually have to pay for the network, WWE has got you covered. Just Google people's names, full match. WWE has some stuff, just random matches from Raw back in the 90s and stuff. Pretty cool.
00:13:06
Speaker
They make it to where you don't even have to watch the show. You can see that three minute clip and not have to watch three hours of television to get there. Yeah, but even that's probably too much, right? Because that's too long. Yeah, that's a lot of Sami Zayn still in three minutes. Well, that's why I always thumbs down the video and don't rate, review or subscribe.
00:13:27
Speaker
Uh, number, my next honorable mention is going to be AEW games. Uh, partially if you are a gamer and you actually want information trailers for the new AEW game, it's a great source. Also, it's just watching like evil Uno play like Mortal Kombat against Colt Cabana or whatever, just kind of entertaining, right? So if you have any interest in video games, I would check out AEW games.
00:13:51
Speaker
My next one I want to mention, World Series Wrestling. It probably would have made the list if it weren't this year. Now it's really in the last six months, more became about a promotional channel for just like promoting their events. But for those that don't know, World Series Wrestling is a huge promotion in Australia. And if you go past last six months, they have lots of full matches. And they basically have this match, like this one card
00:14:18
Speaker
Uh, that's basically the WrestleMania of Australia. They get top top indie talent and they have the entire shows for free. So you're not getting a lot of new content, but definitely worth checking out some old stuff. I'll let you set a second for that because there was a time, I think they were on impacts streaming service or some things that's maybe where we first found them, but basically a lot of the same stuff is on YouTube now as they added. But, uh, yeah, I would just like pull up a world series wrestling match on the treadmill back when, um, I actually gave a shit about myself physically.
00:14:46
Speaker
And, um, and, uh, I would, I would watch that because there's lots of, lots of people you like from not that long ago in interesting matches. And it's not just Robbie Eagles, either. You got, you know, Jordan grace, you got Brian cage, you got the luchas, you got the young bucks even in there. You've brandy roads as a wrestler in Australia. Let wrap your head around that.
00:15:05
Speaker
Right, plus a lot of early Jonah like that became like they had Jonah a lot when he was Bronson Bronson really was Jonah Rock. But you can find this mother of some of the other Australian guys are good too. So yeah, highly recommend that.
00:15:20
Speaker
All right, another honorable mention, just game changer wrestling. It can't make me helpless because they don't really do full matches on there anymore this year that they were doing that during the pandemic. But, you know, you can get backstage promos. If you miss a show, they'll sometimes have some of the big promos or, you know, one minute clips. And sometimes you'll even get like a music video or something that mixed in. So not enough to make my top 10. But a channel, you know, if you like GCW, you like this podcast, you should probably subscribe to.
00:15:46
Speaker
You get all the JCW shows live on their YouTube account, too. That's true. That's true. If they committed to booking Beastman more consistently on those, this easily probably makes the top four or five. But as it is, it's an honorable mention.
00:16:00
Speaker
There, there. And then my last honorable mention is a former friend of our former show, The Nobody. Well, still friend, but The Nobodies. Fuck you, guy. You just found out you got ditched. No, I mean, and again, this was just if they started posting content again, more recently, they've had some some some kind of good reasons why they haven't been posting a lot. But when they when they post a lot, they are just essential, right? So they are again, another ones that
00:16:27
Speaker
I'm hoping we get a WrestleMania episode out of them at a bare minimum and or a Rumble episode. And then I can tell you, I'll be watching those within minutes of them drop.
00:16:38
Speaker
They're the best. And if you do happen to have relatives over the holidays that are weird about drag and drag performers, just start putting that that those videos on and just really just show them, just just force feed them until they start crying. Just what was the what was the name of the channel? The Nobodies. Yeah, the Nobodies. Nobody's watching wrestling as a show, but the Nobodies.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yeah, nobody's the YouTube channel. And again, so if you especially have family members that aren't comfortable with drag and don't like wrestling, definitely put it on, get them way out of their comfort zone and then see if maybe they can oddly deconstruct it back into realizing why we love it. Also, I think somewhere in in their archive is the video of Brody King lip syncing Bad Romance WrestleMania Weekend 2019. So it's a classic. I believe so. OK. Subscribed. Checking this out.
00:17:29
Speaker
yes awesome um all right so the actual top 10 i'm gonna start with number 10 is is actually this is gonna be a surprise i think impact wrestling their channel it has i was watching and i think i mentioned this one i guess i was watching impact in 60 for a while just because i never saw any tna i never saw any impact so for me it was like oh i got just like best of kevin nash best of scott hall best of samoa joe
00:17:53
Speaker
It would be like, cool matches I've never seen. The problem is whoever's editing these shows is really bad at picking good matches. Usually there'd be like one really solid match, maybe one OK one and then one just absolute drizzling shits. So just just go to impact wrestling. They have it's seemingly like I have yet to be recommended a match or like Google like just top impact matches that I have not been able to find on there.
00:18:19
Speaker
It does seem like every match in Impact's history, up until the last couple of years at least, is on their YouTube channel. Any time that I've had somebody that is like really into Impact, which does happen sometimes, like when I first moved here, I ran into a guy while I was buying my podcast equipment who he lived in Florida while they were filming a lot of the
00:18:45
Speaker
I don't know what era that would have been. But he invited me over to his house, showed me a bunch of DVDs of matches I had never seen. And honestly, everyone he wanted to show me was really great. I was happy I didn't have to search for them. That somebody was like, this is what you should be watching. But yeah, no.
00:19:04
Speaker
Impact has good shit. I bet they still do. Just search AJ Styles' full match and just spend a full week watching AJ Styles' matches from his actual... Again, he was what, like 39 or something like that when he came to WWE? And he looks like a completely different person at the beginning and end of that run, but my guess would be seven of the top 10 greatest AJ Styles matches ever probably happened in DNA Impact.
00:19:30
Speaker
close to it. I mean, he's had a lot. I mean, a lot of really good matches. Yeah. Yeah. But that's amazing. So you can sort of see the evolution of styles, which is kind of interesting because I think for a lot of people, they like maybe saw some of the indie stuff and then he like reappeared in New Japan. You're like, oh, like this guy got, you know, this guy's pretty good. And it's like, oh, there were steps in that progression. You can if you just kind of go in old impact impact, definitely one of those that's like the comp is better. Like I would never watch full episodes every time I tried to watch like
00:19:58
Speaker
a full impact pay-per-view. I'm like, why am I doing this? No, but there's so many good matches sort of buried in there. Although the one thing is and then you get and just so many just random matches too. Right. Like it's pretty much again, like you want to watch, you know, Scott Hall versus Samoa Joe. I'm sure I'm sure that happened and it's on the YouTube channel.
00:20:19
Speaker
All right, number nine, Kenny Johnson documentaries. Now, again, he's number nine because these are all wrestling indie docs, but it's very rarely updated. The last one was a documentary in Matt Tremont a year ago. But I would say, again, if you're not familiar, just subscribe. And then if one shows up,
00:20:39
Speaker
You're getting a treat. Right. This is the guy that did Please Don't Die, Joey Janela, one of my probably my favorite wrestling YouTube doc. And the MJF one, right? There's an MJF one. There's a Candace one. There's a Johnny Gargano one, which I believe are two different ones. I get I'm getting them a little confused. I've watched them all. I've watched some of these quite a few times. But definitely if you're a fan of indie wrestling, it's the best. I think it's probably the best indie wrestling documentaries you're going to find.
00:21:08
Speaker
You're not wrong, like that Janela one I've watched a few times. That's a fun watch. It really, it's really, really good. I hope they revisit it now in the post AEW era of Janela. Maybe that's what they're doing now. No Teddy Hart though. He does not do a Teddy Hart document.
00:21:24
Speaker
Number eight is Defiant Wrestling. So this is just an absolute just banger promotion that across the Atlantic that just has a ton of great matches of what I now am officially naming just the Golden Age of indie wrestling before
00:21:40
Speaker
just AEW and NXT just killed it dead. Because now indie wrestling is just different, right? It's more about hardcore wrestling. It's a lot of death matters than what we talked about. But like, it's not like you don't go to a normal kind of vanilla indie promotion and just see absolute bangers the way you were in like 2017. And this is like they've got Will Ospreay. They've got that villain guy that we don't see anymore.
00:22:03
Speaker
But you've got like Cody over there. You've got the Bucks. You've got I don't remember if there's a Kenny Omega appearances, but like there's just pretty much every notable indie guy of that like kind of pre AEW top indies. They all are there. They all wrestle like 30 plus minute matches. Totally free on on YouTube on their on their channel. Yeah, I think Zach's a bunch of Zach Sabre. Yeah, a lot of Zach Sabre. A lot of sexy. You know, anybody from Europe, definitely.
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah. And again, all the, all the really good, I have a playlist that I built that I have not, I actually should dip into more. Maybe that'll be one of my new year's wrestling resolutions. Yeah. The one thing that's challenging about YouTube and this is probably true of all of them all is it's so hard to watch things sequentially, like in the right order. Cause you're going to kind of jump around. So I did try to watch some of this, uh, defiant wrestling stuff in order. Cause they have like titles and stuff like that. And I just, I gave up and I'm just like, you know what, it's all just happening in like hyper time.
International Wrestling Content
00:23:03
Speaker
Anyway, I'm gonna go by real quick number seven because it might be killed so it's just a ring of honor wrestling one Like impact. It's another one that just has a shit ton of their greatest matches ever are there They were doing throwback Thursdays for years and has a lot of their best matches ever now TK may kill this if when the honor club comes back
00:23:25
Speaker
But it was there when the original Honor Club was around, which kind of made me wonder why people would pay for Honor Club for the vault when so much of it's on YouTube. But again, any guys that came up through Ring of Honor has a shit ton of their greatest matches, including a lot of these like Tyler Black, now known as Seth Rollins, for people that aren't aware of like, I don't know how much our listeners know like the old Ring of Honor, but there's a lot of WWE guys from Ring of Honor too. It's not just like the Bucks and Kenny.
00:23:57
Speaker
Our transition to number six is King's Ark. That's all one word. K-I-N-G-S-A-A-R-K. If you want a channel that just randomly posts pro wrestling Noah matches from various periods,
00:24:13
Speaker
This is it, right? This is the one for you. They also sometimes post AJPW as the kind of, I assume the name is some kind of not to Kings Road. Including, you know, just matches. There was a period of time, either late last year or earlier this year, where like the theme, because they definitely go by themes. So a recent theme was like kenta matches, where they just got all these pro wrestling Noah kenta matches that I'd never seen.
00:24:38
Speaker
But the previous theme was just big American horses. So they would have like Andre the Giant, AJPW Bambigolo, Vader. And it's just it's just kind of a lot of fun. Like they might not have like Kobashi Masawa, although they might. But they're going to have just like random ass matches that you never knew about that are just amazing.
00:25:02
Speaker
Let me check that out. I mean, one of the things I want to do since we just got the end of Suzuki Coon, which was a little sad, I'm kind of curious to go back and sort of watch some of the earlier stuff from them. Most particularly, I think the the era where they were invading Noah, because I think there's a lot of interesting stuff probably there. And I can I can tell you for sure. Kings are just got you. I don't because it's they just have the matches like they don't show like video packages or anything, but there's definitely Suzuki matches on there.
00:25:33
Speaker
It sounds like it's about that right era. All right. There you go. All right. Number five.
Otters & Non-Wrestling Content
00:25:38
Speaker
And I know this one's boring. It's the AEW channel. It's worth it just for the occasional Kenny Omega Dark match, which is apparently a thing. And we can talk about that one. I saw it. I don't know if you guys saw it since the last episode. It was a good match. It was a good match. Best match I've seen on AEW YouTube in a couple of years.
00:25:57
Speaker
But really beyond that it's the post PPV media scrims are now essential viewing. They really are essential viewing You have Tony Schiavone in the control room Now one warning I'll give you here if anyone that's like me that often DVRs Dynamite and or rampage you don't watch it right away, but you do plan on watching it in full they post spoilers to absolutely everything immediately after it airs so do not
00:26:23
Speaker
ever go to that channel if you missed a show that you want to watch on spoiled because the first video in the feed is going to be like you know MJF defeats the Ricky Starks blah blah blah. They're really bad too about if I don't think about it and just like I'm avoiding the show.
00:26:43
Speaker
log into Instagram, Facebook, it always just immediately pops up and spoils something for me. Just the second I click on it. Yeah, I think they particularly pay attention to YouTube and pay for promotion though, because I've noticed that YouTube is probably the worst with that, that you kind of can't avoid it. It'll be on your front screen. And again, 90% of the content is complete crap, right? It's just that you have that few gems in there. Now we're really getting the top four really, the big four here.
00:27:12
Speaker
And I'm gonna start with number four, the videos, officiales, CMLL, no spaces in that. And here's the thing, I've been since, I now have my trip to Mexico City rebooked, replanned. Some listeners show might know that there were some personal things. I was off the show for a couple of weeks. My trip didn't happen. I'm really excited. I do love Lucha Libre. The secret with Lucha Libre though,
00:27:35
Speaker
is that it can be kind of boring because all of the matches are super duper long. They're two out of three falls and they're punctuated. So I would actually argue.
00:27:46
Speaker
YouTube is the best way to watch this show. They post everything on that channel. There are new videos every day there's a show which is like four or five days a week, but they don't just do the full match. They do clipped like three to four minute versions of most matches where you get absolutely everything you want to see, right? It's just like a four minute just mystical high spot reel and you get a couple of week and they're all incredible.
00:28:11
Speaker
The actual match, your mileage may vary, but the YouTube channel is pretty much nothing but great stuff. True delight.
00:28:20
Speaker
Um, number three, uh, this one's kind of boring to is, uh, F4W online. Um, you know, obviously figure four radio, um, wrestling observer guys Meltzer. Um, you really don't need to increase. I'm not trying to attack you here, but like you really don't need to pay for the observer.
00:28:42
Speaker
If you if you subscribe to this YouTube channel, again, they post videos every hour ish most of the day. And again, like it covers pretty much everything going on. Everything is in the observer is all on there. You know, I take no attack facts. I like once a week reading the incredibly lengthy ramblings of
00:29:04
Speaker
of Dave Meltzer. That's that's what I pay for. I recognize that, like, I don't want people like, oh, they got all the radio shows. I'm like, I don't want to listen to these radio shows in full. They post the important parts as clips to YouTube. And if you want to try to listen to Dave Meltzer talk for like a full hour. Yeah. God bless. Oh, no, no, no.
00:29:23
Speaker
And under no circumstances should anyone listen to the radio shows, right? If you're going to do it, do it YouTube. They'll do some of them are like kind of PT, PTI style, like arguments. You can skip most of those, but they basically just give you the meat. Yeah, you got to see Brian and hear Brian Alvarez, right? So it might be worth the subscription just to avoid that and see what the state of his facial hair is.
00:29:45
Speaker
But, um, other than that, I find it pretty, pretty essential, right? Anytime I want to get kind of that official, like, Oh, somebody just texted me something. Is this real? I just go to the figure for a YouTube channel and usually they can verify its veracity. All right. Number two is going to be.
00:30:06
Speaker
Kotsumit, K-O-T-S-U-M-E-T. Now this has absolutely nothing to do with wrestling. It is about a Japanese man that lives in a house and goes to hotels with two otters. And it is adorable. He puts videos constantly. Just this is like, if you're a wrestling fan, that means definitely you're a human and every human should subscribe to this YouTube channel. It is pure, pure gold.
00:30:35
Speaker
Do you want to see an otter have a birthday party? Well, I did, and that's how I found the channel. Do you want to see what happens when an otter has to give flowers to another otter?
00:30:51
Speaker
What about checking into a hotel in Japan with two otters? Is that something you might be interested in? It is. What is the logistics of that? Is it frowned upon? Is it like they're like, obviously you can bring them here. You put little hats on them, make them people, stack them on top of each other, put a jacket on.
00:31:08
Speaker
I think it's generally the reception is always positive to the otters. Um, there doesn't seem to be any restrictions. Everyone in Japan universally loves them. This may be the biggest, this may be like bigger than friends in Japan, quite frankly, because they're, they're treated like royalty. And actually it's, if anything, it's like, Oh, the girl working at the front desk then comes by the room and is like, can you? Yeah. Like, can you put this little hat on the otter? I just, that would make me happy.
00:31:38
Speaker
This is why we've got to go back to Japan because I think I think you need to we need to do some content with the otters Yeah, and again cute animal videos all over YouTube. They're mostly generic this one It's good continuity you get to learn, you know, you get to know these two otters You to learn their behaviors and it just makes it better and honestly that again they post content very frequently It's almost
00:32:03
Speaker
And then number one, number one on the list, and this is to the surprise of absolutely no one, Appalachian Championship Wrestling.
Unique Wrestling Awards
00:32:11
Speaker
It's just the cream of the crop. It's the best of Shane Douglas's Facebook combined with the best BW3 parking lot brawls you're ever going to see. It's just everything on it is must see.
00:32:24
Speaker
one of the only like I don't allow my phone generally send alerts from things like video platforms. I will allow my phone to alert me when new content hits Appalachian. It is that vital. Your phone says you better bring your own chair so you can sit down and be ready for this alert because you are going to faint. That's right. That's right. So yeah, I mean, everything else on this list is just kind of treading water between Appalachian videos.
00:32:55
Speaker
All right. Now I'm with you. I'm with you again. I think this year, this is the year we will find our way to that parking lot. I believe it 2023. And again, I'd love to support Beastman's promotion, but they're not as as as open about just the content on the YouTube channel. Hmm. All right. First award of the year.
00:33:18
Speaker
We're going to be handing out the, uh, Cole Radricks pants award, which is an award for excellence in wrestling fashion. The 2022 recipient of the Cole Radricks pants award is Cole Radrick. Oh, upset. How does he not win this year in the year that he started wearing the pants this year?
00:33:43
Speaker
Yeah, and he had them in so many different colors. And what does he keep in those cargo pockets? How does he keep a family when he has those pants on on the weekends? A lot going on with those pants. And you know what? Next year, I can't wait to see who gets that award. I mean, a lot of people, I think, did a lot of, you know, great stuff in fashion this year. But I'm with you. It's really hard to top Radric's pants just from a what the fuck perspective.
00:34:12
Speaker
You know who had a really down year in terms of pants fashion this year? Nick Gage. And it wasn't just because he was wrestling less frequently for some obvious reasons. His shorts were iconic. They were the Nick Gage shorts. And then just kind of as soon as he stopped wearing the same just desiccated shorts every single match, it lost a little something for me.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'll toss an honorable mention to FTR for just ripping off all the best tag teams ever in there with their, for their pants. I'm like, sounds great guys works. They've got, they've got a midnight express theme music, midnight express pants for heart foundation pants. They're just, they're doing the right things. It just, you know, makes my heart flutter.
00:35:00
Speaker
Another honorable mention, I think, would be Beastman. Because I know when we heard the name Beastman initially, we're like, dumb name, stupid.
00:35:10
Speaker
ready to be cynical. He walked through that curtain for the first time. We all saw him. And I believe in my mind, we were on our feet, already chanting a Beastman, Beastman, husk husk husk, even though we didn't know that was the chant yet. Like it was just something about- It was instantaneous, you're right. But if this was overall aesthetic or overall fashion, I think Beastman takes it. But since we're really focused in the pants region here, I feel like that's the least important part of the Beastman ensemble.
00:35:39
Speaker
Indeed. Next list or I can do another one. I'll do, I'll do, I'll do my list. So we've got a, we've got a top five here. Um, now this is, I have to admit, um, this is, this is an ad read, um, from one of our newest sponsors. Um, this is, these are the top, top five things to do in Boonton, New Jersey. That's where your story begins, right? That's where your story begins. Um, number five.
00:36:06
Speaker
is a visit to Highlander Games. Great game store. The only thing, actually, Highlander might have been higher, but it's dragged down by a two-star review from someone labeled Beastman Husk, who says that Highlander Games was trapping his fans and preventing him from getting the proper applause he deserves. So he has been listening, I guess, to the show, guys, and he's really mad. He's gone deep.
00:36:32
Speaker
I'm assuming, though, he gave two stars instead of one because they had a lot of the Pokemon singles that he wanted there, though, because he liked all one star. Yeah, he did go there and buy some stuff after the show. But he was very mad leave without something. Yeah, it's it's great. It's why it still makes the top five. I mean, it's even the low review director.
00:36:53
Speaker
Number four is Chili Willy's. It's a delightful Mexican restaurant. Again, dragged down by a review from Bending Man, who is very upset that they will not admit that they are owned by the guy from ECW. Yeah, yeah. Chili. Who else would name Chili Willy was the breast. There's no other. No one else would come up with the name Chili Willy. Right. Not even that penguin from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
00:37:22
Speaker
Number three, maybe surprisingly low, the Boonton Elks Lodge. Great place to see a wrestling show. Probably a great place to, I think, spend any kind of like a Saturday night. It just seems like a fun place, great atmosphere, great food. They've had great drink prices. You gotta love the Boonton Elks Lodge. It's a great, and again, if you're thinking about having a deathmatch wedding or a deathmatch vow renewal, Garrett,
00:37:52
Speaker
The Boonton Elks Lodge has you covered. Number two is the downstairs at the Boonton Elks Lodge specifically. That is honestly one of the most amazing things I found in wrestling this year. I feel like I'm going to keep going to these shows in part just because I get to go downstairs. Like I.
00:38:14
Speaker
I just feel like it's I'm going to go to every show for that opportunity. So I mean, we I mean, in in twenty twenty three, I mean, it's happening, right? You and I are going to a non-wrestling event there just to see like what a normal Saturday night at the Alex Lodge is like and see like I'm assuming it's members only, but I'll try to see if I can pull some pull some favors and see if I can get us an in just to see like what do they do now? Is it like because I'm thinking on a normal Saturday night, it's like the the Playboy mansion grotto.
00:38:44
Speaker
It's just that's what all the the the ringers are. Yeah, we are going to find out maybe there's other events that are just open to the public at the boot and elks lodge.
Character Highlights & Humor
00:38:53
Speaker
And of course, number one thing to see in New Jersey, and this is again from the boot and tourism bureau, is the creepy abandoned bowling alley at the elks lodge. It's just number one, I mean,
00:39:07
Speaker
You can't top it, and if you're looking for reasons to come to New Jersey, boot in New Jersey specifically, that's the number one reason to come. That's why it's where your story begins, because when you see that bowling alley, it changes you in ways that are hard to describe. Everything that can happen in that building, I mean, you can make a friend, you can get a bite to eat, you can lose your virginity. It is a one-stop shop
00:39:35
Speaker
for all things good. I have no doubt there are some Jersey children, possibly Joey Janela himself, that were conceived in the Elks Lodge. They probably had a baptism in the Elks Lodge, birthday parties in the Elks Lodge, maybe a hardcore deathmatch wedding. Yeah. The feature length version of that Joey documentary, we'll get the backstory on where he was conceived.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah, and I think I think you are right. I think it will. We will not be surprised to find out that it was right under where those bowling pin loader guys. And that's where his story began. Exactly. All right, give it give us an award, Garrett. OK, award for babyface turn of the year goes to Brandon Kirk.
00:40:27
Speaker
for that time that he squeezed a lemon into mitten's eyes. He was one of the top heels on the endies. Next thing we know, he squeezes a lemon into mitten's eyes. He has a baby face fight in his wife for the death match championship. I don't think it gets any better than that. And mittens is important to us.
00:40:49
Speaker
Um, I mean, I don't necessarily want to see him get hurt, but I don't not want to see him get hurt. And Brandon Kirk was there for us when we needed him most. And the timing of that too was like, like, that was the perfect time timing for, for Mittens to get a little comeuppance. Right. Oh, and also because they are too long because Garrett, uh, Garrett's wife was having a child. So again, I think there in that, in that, in the timing there, um, Brandon Kirk knew you needed that.
00:41:19
Speaker
Holy fuck, you're right. I watched that while I was sitting. Oh my God. I had a baby that day. I totally fucking forgot that was the day that I was sitting in a room and they're like, okay, we're delivering the baby now. And Mittens was a part of it. God.
00:41:41
Speaker
All right, Brandon Kirk's baby face turn was a bigger part of it. It was a. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's why in that moment you were like, this is meaningful to me. And that's that's why this won the award. Absolutely. Absolutely. What what do we have next? Well, I was going to say, though, I mean, any honorable mentions on on the the baby face turn, because I do think there were a lot of a lot of turns this year. I feel like people's opinions of people were changing a lot this year.
00:42:09
Speaker
Wardlow had a very big turn this year. If we're talking about like genuine baby face turns of like a wrestler getting over as a as a baby face. FTR, obviously, he claimed one of the biggest. Yeah, very big. Well, daddy, yeah, throw daddy ass in there.
00:42:30
Speaker
Exactly. Because really, a lot of guys you mentioned were just kind of normal, organic, gradual, whereas daddy, yes, actually he turned on his own sons and that was a baby face move. You got to love that. I mean, that isn't unsimilar to Brandon Kirk getting cheered for beating the fuck out of his wife with glass. You know, it's it's family drama will get you put over as a baby face quicker than anything. And scissoring.
00:42:59
Speaker
Yes, Scissoring Huge. I'll do a quick top five here to get to the next word, because I might be fading fast here too. So in the rebooted, we don't have a full year of this, in the rebooted podcast, I did a top five characters of the podcast. And none of the hosts qualify for this, to be clear. Number five is Beef King seasoning.
00:43:28
Speaker
It's just, it was there. It's reliable. It comes up. And you know what? We also learned a lot. You know, normally we just make jokes about things we learned. Beef King's delicious. And everyone should probably buy it. This is another sponsored section. Yeah. Number four, Jon Moxley. He's the only actual wrestler on the list, but like Moxley was important to this podcast. I mean, he became a God this year and we had a lot of fun with him. And that vacation that.
00:43:56
Speaker
It's still coming. At some point, he swears. Someday. Someday. Renee versus that vacation might be match of 2023. If it ever happens. It's a long build. How mad is Renee that Kenny Omega is wrestling on dark? Because now you know Moxie is going to go down there. Oh, what are they doing in Orlando? I'm going to fucking fight the Jaws ride. I'll fucking fight Jaws. First blood.
00:44:27
Speaker
I'm gonna cut him up just like in your kitty sisters class with the paper dolls Number three is Jimmy Lloyd child actor I think you could just say Jimmy Lloyd of any era but I think particularly the we've really embraced the child actor part of Jimmy Lloyd here
00:44:47
Speaker
I agree, it's been really nice to see, I feel like I learned so much about Jimmy Lloyd each week. Because weirdly, some of these things maybe aren't 100% factual, but I feel like they're getting at a truth. And we're getting there. For sure. I think if I win the lottery, and I can do anything I want, because I think that's part of when you win, they're like, no rules, the purge for you. I would pay Daniel Day-Lewis,
00:45:18
Speaker
and Jimmy Lloyd to star in a three hour buddy, not even a comedy, a drama, a very serious movie, just to be on set and watch the interaction between those two. And he's gonna be like, later he's like, fuck, I thought I was a good method actor. This guy is, this guy's really going there.
00:45:41
Speaker
You know what, and by the way, next on list was going to be Richard Dreyfus, but I'm actually removing it. I'm calling an audible here because I think number two and number one are just tied for number one. Richard Dreyfus is in the honorable mentions, but the number two and number one.
00:45:55
Speaker
That's okay. I, well, you know what? Then let's kick beef King off the, off the list. Unfortunately. Oh no. You can't keep everybody happy facts, but two and one are, and it's a tie for one and two is Garrett's child's penis hole.
00:46:12
Speaker
and Vince McMahon's penis hole. I would say when we did the bit with Vince's cocaine addicted penis hole, I've never laughed so hard at something that I myself participated in, or at least haven't in a very long time. And when we went through that hole, about three quarters of a lengthy episode on penis holes, it was delightful. I don't know if our viewership went up, but I gave a five star rating of the show. I never had done that before.
00:46:42
Speaker
I'll tell you, it did go up that day. I can't say we retained, but there was a spike. A lot of people tried. They were like, we're sampling some penis hole. There was definitely like our normal listeners all churned, but we just got a bunch of really weird people that downloaded and is now our car audience. We're going to be slowly shifting into a anthropomorphic penis podcast.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah, they tuned into the next one and they're like, who are these briskos? I'm here for the penis. No, that's a very good list. Yeah, I agree. I feel bad for Richard Dreyfuss, but I, you know. And what are you gonna do? And fans are wondering, why is Beastman, Beastman's not a character. He is a man, a myth, and a legend. He is not a character. We do not tarnish, we do not play Beastman, hypothetical here. Beastman is legit.
00:47:39
Speaker
We legitimately mean it. Yeah, absolutely. And I hope Beastman knows that. That when we discuss him being at Buca de Beppo, that is because.
00:47:54
Speaker
You know, we, I don't want to say we're like paparazzi, but you know, there's some people that are like, I want to know where Ben Affleck is. I got to know where the beast man goes. Maybe I want to go there too. You know? So you heard it here first. Garrett has saying his inside sources in Warner Brothers DC say that beast man will be playing Batman in the new James Gunn version. They're canceling the Robert Pattinson one. It's going to be beast man as Batman after his world title reign.
00:48:24
Speaker
They're actually going to be doing a Dark Knight Returns, you know, an old grizzled Batman. And AEW is is really adjacent to the Warner Brothers, right? They're on the Warner Brothers chases. Everyone keeps talking about HBO Max being where PBS might land. Like there could be some good cross promotion. The winter is coming. We still have an annual winter is coming show because their first year they wanted to promote the Game of Thrones finale.
00:48:50
Speaker
And now it's an annual tradition. So I think having Beastman as AEW World Champ and the new Batman, that's just good corporate synergy. No denying that. Up next, the award for Mom of the Year, meaning the wrestler I would most like to be my mommy, goes to Rhea Ripley. I don't watch a lot of WWE,
00:49:18
Speaker
But Dominic betrayed his father, and now Rhea Ripley is his mommy. And I can't tell if it's sexual or if it is like a genuine caregiver role, but I'll tell you one thing. If Rhea Ripley were my mommy, I would get to stay up late and watch Terminator 2 with no consequences, and that is why Rhea Ripley would be my mommy. You don't know whether it's actual mothering or sexual, but you know you want in.
00:49:48
Speaker
whatever's going on there. You want to do that. Well, and from I don't I don't necessarily watch pornography, but I am aware of some of the idea. Analyze it. You don't really want to analyze it scientifically. I analyze the thumbnails in the description of the video, and there's a lot of stepmom things going on, which I'm like, how would that ever happen? But if Rhea Ripley were my mommy.
00:50:17
Speaker
She would let me watch Terminator 2, and that's all I'm gonna say. It's interesting that Terminator 2 is such a specific part of this. My mommy wouldn't let me stay up late and watch Terminator 2. I was too young. Oh, so there you go. Sorry, this has become therapy. Is there any chance you'd watch Mr. Holland's opus with her after the Terminator 2? I mean, I don't think she's gonna suggest it. She looks like...
00:50:46
Speaker
she seems like we're gonna be watching Terrifier, or maybe Mad Max Fury Road, I don't know. Oh no, I think, yeah, I mean, she seems that way, but that's how she's keeping Dom around, right? Dom wouldn't get too scared of those things, but after the things that are scary, they transition into a little bit with Mr. Holland's opus.
00:51:09
Speaker
I just kind of want Minoru Suzuki to be someone's mommy, just to see what kind of hellacious fight beast comes out of that. It's a real Mrs. Doubtfire situation. Oh my God, if they remade Mrs. Doubtfire starring Minoru Suzuki and his day job is still as a fighter. Oh, that's wonderful.
00:51:32
Speaker
What happened to you, Mrs. Doubtfire? Eyes are all swollen. And it's an American movie in English, but he just speaks Japanese with no subtitles the entire time. He's still a Scottish lady. I did love that. One of my favorite things after the... So last week they did the New Japan did a final Suzuki-kun match. And afterwards, each of the guys in Suzuki-kun took turns.
00:52:00
Speaker
like thanking Suzuki, but like the best part was that all of them were basically saying a combination of like, thank you, but you definitely still terrify me. As they should. As they should, as they should. Tai Chi's like, I've been doing this 11 years, how? I love you and I miss you. They have to say goodbye because he's headed back to America to win his family back. Sally Field won't let him see him.
00:52:29
Speaker
And there's only one way, guys, only one way. So, yes, Rhea Ripley, mom of the year award.
Favorite Matches Discussion
00:52:38
Speaker
Love it. I think we've kind of are just normal. Actually, our top 10 and then this is OK, so this is the top 10.
00:52:51
Speaker
Matt, no, this is not in order. This is gonna be in, because I couldn't rank them. That just felt wrong. It's a 10-way tie for first. It's a 10-way tie for first. Top 10 matches of the year, sort of in terms of importance to the podcast, right? This is not a complete definitive top 10 list. There's probably other, there are other great, there are definitely great matches that are not on this list. And again, if you watch some of those Otter videos after this, but before January 1st, you might, you might shuffle some of those.
00:53:20
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. So number one, our first one up here, and every time I think about this match, I can't believe it happened this year. It's Hangman Page against Bryan Danielson too. Fax and I were in attendance for this, both heavily masked because we were positive we were gonna get Omicron during the show. And a friend of mine who went to the show actually did get Omicron there.
00:53:50
Speaker
An incredible match. Bax and I jumped out of our seats when Hangman won, like we watched him win a football game or something. Truly amazing match. And just also just putting that there just to remind people that in this calendar year, Hangman Page was the champion. We were excited about that. And there was this banger match and we all thought we were going to die, but it was worth going to see.
00:54:14
Speaker
And I remember, especially the finish that, because I just, for whatever reason, in my head, this wasn't from the dirt sheets, just in my head, I was positive it was going to be another non-finished somehow.
00:54:25
Speaker
And they were going to go to a third. So when it goes to, I think it was like about a 38 minutes somewhere in that ballpark, which was again, less than an hour draw. And of course there is no time limit on this match, but somehow I thought there was going to be some kind of fuckery. And then to see hangman just straight up win it. Uh, and at that time, Brian Danielson was not known as the guy willing to take a job.
00:54:49
Speaker
Now he's taking a couple more here and there, but yeah, that one was great. Genuine, nice surprise. Yeah. Like, you know, yeah. But yeah, I do remember being worried, but thankfully I felt probably a little bit more safe than Chris because I had already gotten COVID at a GCW show earlier. So.
00:55:07
Speaker
No, no, that's that's three weeks after this. Oh, I'm sorry. That was three weeks after the month of really the first three months of the year. I can't believe happened at all, really, or this year. I honestly, I kind of blacked out for about three months because that's actually number two. Nick Gage and Matt Tremont against the Briscoes. And I'm not saying this match was great, but I do want to reflect back on the fact that
00:55:37
Speaker
We were like, we thought GCW was going to explode this year. They sold out the Hammerstein in the first month of the year that never went back and never did a pay-per-view that size ever again. Yeah. I mean, they, they, they couldn't even sell out the boot and oaks lodge for the settlement series. Well, I looked up.
00:55:59
Speaker
Uh, today I was looking at cage match and I counted GCW this year did 91 shows. That's also counting. I believe JCW since those are produced by them, but all things considered, that is a lot, a lot, a lot of shows a week almost. Right. I mean, yeah, over the year. And then I clicked on the Hammerstein show. It is shocking how few matches were on that show and how
00:56:27
Speaker
short every match was. I don't think there was maybe one match that went like 16 minutes. It's kind of like it's kind of like watching like WrestleMania 3 where you're just like it's this historic and most important thing.
00:56:45
Speaker
but it's kind of shit outside of one match. It's the most important GCW show ever, but it was kind of just an objectively bad show.
00:57:01
Speaker
And I mean, it kind of seemed like that wasn't the case in the moment for the people in the room. It was more of like reflecting back on it. It would have been literally Jimmy Lloyd could have come in the ring, put a traffic cone up his ass and projectile shot liquid diarrhea all over the crowd while blasting hit me baby one more time. And we would have been like, juicy dub, juicy dub, juicy, loving it. So yeah.
00:57:30
Speaker
And I hope they do another one. And like WrestleMania, eventually they got to more consistently good matches and cards. Because it does really feel like a kind of a missed opportunity for GCW.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yeah, like in the moment, yeah, it was a fun it was fun thing to be there. But then that was the beginning of like, wait a minute, Nick Gage. And it's like, is Nick Gage OK? And then also the like Jeff Jarrett beats Effie and then just disappears. And like Mox Miller doesn't get a match. And like the last year has been so huge for like Atticus was the next fucking guy. And he didn't have a match on the show.
00:58:07
Speaker
Well, and a lot of outside of the Nick Cage company, everything else was just kind of like just another show. It's like Nick Cage against sorry, John Moxley against homicide, the solid good match. But it was first out of rehab like it was. Yeah, but but even then that that was kind of a coincidence. What I'm saying is it didn't it wasn't a match with any stakes. There is no possibility Moxley's losing that match. Right. Which is like if this is your WrestleMania one, this is your Starrcade.
00:58:36
Speaker
It didn't really hit that those heights. Yeah. That was one of the biggest disappointments. I think was that match. I was so excited for that match. I was like, Oh, fuck, this is going to be great. And then they started wrestling and it was like, Oh yeah. Mox is going to win. Shit. There's no literally no drama in this match, like zero.
00:58:51
Speaker
And that was kind of the first several matches for him were that way. He didn't really have a good one until him, I have it on my list of just like honorable mentions of the year was him and AJ Gray. Like that was the first like, this is what all of these should be. Sorry, next year. By the way, before we get in, I don't think you have an award for this Garrett. So I just kind of want to say the kind of low key, the best thing, the most consistently great thing about GCW this year is actually in the tag division.
00:59:18
Speaker
Right? Because like with Moxie's champion, they were great matches for those four, but again, not a lot of drama. And then Nick Gage when he becomes champion, he's still kind of getting his, his, his sea legs under him. But like the tag division has been amazing all year in GCW. I would argue that this was the low, the low moment of the tag division was Nick Gage winning the tag title of Matt Tremont.
00:59:42
Speaker
Right. Well, they sort of needed that because Gage kind of disappeared. They didn't have mocks a lot over the summer. And so they kind of needed the tag teams to sort of carry it. That's why part of one of the reasons why I think it's been a weird year for GCW is that ultimately they've needed to rely on those guys in a way that, uh, was maybe too much in terms of drawing, but in terms of enjoyment, uh, yeah, those guys teams were all great. So.
01:00:03
Speaker
You could go down the list of all the, I mean, even teams that didn't, we didn't have at the beginning of the year, like the Mega Bastards, Los Massisos, maybe just those two, but no, I don't, like, you know, we had big year for Bussy, big year for, just a lot of good shit.
01:00:23
Speaker
Uh, number three, just cause one of us was here for this one. Um, but it does feel like it just changed a lot of our perceptions of things. Uh, it's Cody versus Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. Um, just one of those things that I'm like, I kind of can't believe it happened. I can't believe it worked for Cody. Um, or at least it has so far. Um, and it was really good. Um, good match. Uh, we'll see what happens, what it's like when he comes back and Triple H is in charge after he literally, you know,
01:00:52
Speaker
gave Triple H and F.U. to start at the start of AEW, but... But it's because it's his favorite wrestler. It's his favorite wrestler, so he smashed a chair. My favorite boy. But you were there for that one, Bax.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that that one is one of those ones and like the WWE produced documentaries about it are going to go off bigger because there was another one that it was it was the surprise appearance that had absolutely no surprise whatsoever. Like everyone was 100 percent certain like Vegas was not taking bets on that one. So it was just kind of weird. And like and I remember thinking, I'm like, is it going to be the Cody music? Is it going to be the American Nightmare music? I'm like,
01:01:31
Speaker
I think it is but that's gonna and I remember like just being in the crowd in Dallas and that was the one takeaway of like It's like nothing else was even real Except for the music and I'm like, this is really weird that they're playing this song That I used to listen to it Hammerstein right to have when he was fighting Dalton Castle, right and now it's this and
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think, I think that's things. I also think the Cody thing, him appearing at WrestleMania was sort of like felt to me like the end of a certain era in AEW. We're always going to draw, I think a line at that moment, um, for, for good or for ill. And, and I love AEW, not sort of not insulting here. And there's some AEW stuff in the back half here that we'll talk about in a sec, but.
01:02:20
Speaker
I, that's definitely a moment in a shift in our, I think everyone's relationship to AEW, just because Cody was such a big part of it at the beginning, you know? And then again, you, yeah, hearing that music at WrestleMania has got to be, I don't know, very, very strange. It was, I don't know. And it's also, there's a moment too, a little bit where like, as an AEW fan boy, you're, you're, you're kind of hurt. But then when you see him come out, you're kind of like, Oh yeah, you know what? Good for Cody. And like, he is getting, and like, I remember also thinking, like, kind of thinking like, I know this is about to happen.
01:02:49
Speaker
there's 88,000 other people here. Do they know what's going to happen? Do they even know who this guy is? Right. And so when he did get the huge pop, the pop of the night, that wasn't so cold, at least it, it reinforced was like good for him and did kind of suck the last couple of months in AWW. And, and this could be good. And, and I just remember having this clear image of, I bet he's going to have some really gross purple marks on his body soon and fight through them in a really uncomfortable way.
01:03:19
Speaker
Well yeah, I think it changed our, it's about like our relationship to like, our relationship to AEW at the beginning was really about the people a lot of times. And so they're going to go on and their lives are going to shift and our relationship is kind of still going to be to them. And I think that also changed our relationship a lot, probably the most with Tony Khan, right? Cause that's the first time that a lot of them, they really took the cover backwards. Like, Oh no, this is clearly Tony's company. Everyone's talking about his Tony's company to a far greater degree than we, I think we had really realized.
01:03:46
Speaker
And I think if that's really when you start seeing the criticism of Tony Khan, which a lot of it's very legitimate, some of it gets blown on proportion, but a lot of it's very really kind of starts there. Like there was really not a whisper of Tony Khan doing anything wrong until the Cody thing, even though we kind of all agreed Cody was crazy for wanting CM Punk money. Right. Well, and speaking of people who replace relationships that we have number the fourth one on the list here,
01:04:16
Speaker
is of course, uh, beast man against Mike Bennett, uh, June in Chicago. Um, pretty sure it's the reason we have a podcast again. Um, because I think we all felt at the end of that. Wow. Uh, we've really got to go talk about this with other people. Um, if you haven't seen it warrior wrestling number
01:04:35
Speaker
22 or three, it's free now on prowrestling.tv. So you can go watch it and you can see, you can sort of see us losing our goddamn minds in the corner. You know, you can, we're there, you can see it. Top, back, back corner. It was just such a magical moment. Like,
01:05:00
Speaker
I think our expectations for that show going in were so incredibly low. It was a thing to kill time after we ate lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern across the street, walk across to the Malcolm X Community College, paid like 20 bucks to get into this thing. A decent card, a handful of people had dropped off.
01:05:21
Speaker
But there was something magical about them. I mean, before we even saw him, his his actual person. Right. Just the the mask, the the gear, the the essence, the beauty of the beast. It was it was fucking rad. And the weirdest thing before. Derek has never seen Beastman.
01:05:46
Speaker
Yeah. Derek did not see that match with us. He took a shit. He missed the entire match because he was taking a shit. He took a shit and then got a drink.
01:05:55
Speaker
Uh, yeah. And it's, wait, no, really? Yeah. I remember that. That's one of those things in my mind. Derek's there. Derek's right there with us, but he's just thinking we're crazy. I think you're mixing. There's the magic of the match. Then there's the magic of the show. Then there's the magic that whole day. Like I agree with you. I think that that day, whether it's that beast man match or not, I think that beast man matches like 60% of it. And then I think maybe the, the.
01:06:19
Speaker
The AEW New Japan show is like 30% of it. I feel like this podcast has been us chasing the dragon of that ever since. I remember just being in Derek's car and we're all just shooting and laughing and just being like, man, if there was a microphone in here, this would do gangbusters. And I wish that it was recorded just for me personally so I could listen back to this.
01:06:41
Speaker
And and I remember even I think it was Derek's idea, even though he has not been super active or just been here of like, yeah, we should just hop on a Zoom call or something every once in a while. It wasn't even like let's bring the podcast back. It was literally just we should we should watch wrestling on Zoom together more often. And we've done a podcast.
01:07:04
Speaker
Uh, number five, again, more for what it did for us, uh, really than the match itself is that John Moxley against Desperado. Um, you know, this goes to what facts talked about earlier about Moxley as a character. Um, it really, I feel like ignited our love of Desperado and let, I mean, we all watched the Desperado June Kasai match, which was incredible. And I think that's a, an honorable mention match for the year. Um,
01:07:29
Speaker
It involves Garrett being in some weird like barn or something. I don't understand some shack or something. So all of that. I think that that match gets a lot. I finally did see that match afterwards because I really had felt like I could, I can't believe that, no, he didn't really just blade him in a mask for his own pleasure. No, really happened.
01:07:50
Speaker
It's true, you can go back and watch it on New Japan World. And this was probably the most tightly contested slot, just because there was so much Moxley and so much Desperado, we wanted to get in here and we're just like, well, you kind of have to put this one, right? Just, it's kind of the perfect example for both. It really, like everything about it was like, even more than the match itself, it truly was all character building for our perception of John Moxley.
01:08:17
Speaker
Right. And Desperados we'd find out not not long after. Yeah. Just the fact that Moxley was willing to go that hard on a match that I guess you could have bought on fight TV, but not really airing anywhere else. It's in a fucking barn. It is the lead in to SummerSlam, which, you know, a lot of people are already downtown ready for that. So this is and then, yeah, just like the fact that he would have a man bleed
01:08:45
Speaker
where only Jon Moxley knows it's happening. And by the way, this is the year that Desperado and Suzuki goon finally made sense. Right? Now it's like, oh, now I can't imagine what's he going to do without Suzuki. Yeah. And it was interesting because I was like, man, somehow that match, though, defines everything, even though I was live for four Jon Moxley world title matches, all of which I very much enjoyed.
01:09:14
Speaker
We were live for N plus plus GCW title matches. Fax and I were there for another, I was there for two, Fax was there for three of them. Four. Four, maybe I missed one. All of that, oh yeah, because you were there for the AJ Gray match too. So we all saw so many great Moxley matches this year, but somehow that match was the definition for us. The next one is the, I just have it in quotes, the quote unquote death of Ric Flair.
01:09:44
Speaker
Again, it just felt like one of those things of like, this is what, why I love talking about wrestling. Uh, I believe actually if, uh, as you're hearing this, I think you can go watch us on fight plus now. I think it's free as part of the 12 days of Christmas on fight or 12 days of fightness. Um, it's just one of those things of like, I just, I'm glad, I'm glad we had microphones on when we got to talk about that.
01:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was a great show up until that match. And it was a match that I think like the only expectation we had for it is he was going to die. And he almost got us there. Like he had a couple false finishes with death in that match. And he kicked out of the Grim Reaper's sweet embrace.
01:10:34
Speaker
and he's still with us, Conrad gets his money, Pop Pop gets to be there for another Christmas. It was what it was and I can't wait to see who Conrad tries to kill next. Coincidentally the first Christmas he's ever spent with his family.
01:11:00
Speaker
Um, so the next one, uh, I honestly couldn't honestly couldn't fucking pick. Uh, so it's just, uh, elite six man tag matches. Um, I missed the three of them together. I missed their musk and the fact that they're back and just wrestling six man matches together, um, is delightful. Um, if you want me to pick one, um, I guess it's, it's probably the one at, uh, at full gear, which would be out of order. Um, but they started happening in late August and they've been.
01:11:29
Speaker
like the best and I just, you know, I'm glad they're, I'm glad they're happening. I'm glad we got Kenny back. We got Kenny back guys. It means so much to so many of our mental healths, I think.
01:11:40
Speaker
just having Kenny Omega present in our lives. Life feels more worth living with him in it. Life is a little bit better. I'm just, well, I'm glad he's here. And it also just feels like the bookends to the drama, as we'll just call it, where it's like, there was, and I'll say it, you guys don't have to agree, but there is that half minute when you first hear about the CM Punk altercation,
01:12:09
Speaker
where you go, is it possible Kenny Omega is an asshole? Is it possible Kenny and the Bucks are wrong? And it just that I will carry the shame of that doubt with me till my grave. But I feel like after seeing this recent run of matches, because yes, of course, wrestling is how you know someone's character, but just there's no way
01:12:33
Speaker
Kenny and they were completely vindicated by whatever the backstage investigations yielded at great expense to Tony Khan, because it seems like CM Punk's getting most, if not all, of his money still. And it just feels like, no, these guys were in the right. They are the virtuous knights in white armor that we've always known Kenny Omega and the young Bucks to be. And all is right in the world again. There is a Santa Claus, and his name is Kenny Omega.
01:13:01
Speaker
Uh, the next one that did actually happen sort of in this order here. Um, and shout out to, uh, to our friend, our pal, our, our co-host Derek. Um, because this was the one episode he did with us this year, uh, acclaimed versus sort of in our glory, the first one at all out. Um, the other two never quite reached the same level, but that first one is one of the damnedest things I've ever seen. Um, in terms of a crowd reaction, lifting or wrestling match into like a stratosphere.
01:13:27
Speaker
Um, and then Derek and I spent a long time talking about that, which was clearly the most important thing that happened that evening. For sure. Um, from a rest nothing more interesting going on in the YouTube channel. Nothing at all. And again, if it is interesting that if a claim to just go over in that match, it's probably an M O T Y C.
01:13:46
Speaker
Right. And in a year with a lot of really, really good wrestling. And that's definitely like, that's one of the biggest turns you'll ever see. It's not the claim turning babyface. It's the clean turning into a team capable of working really high level matches. Well, not consistently yet, but they're having really, really good matches. And if you can do at their age, if you can start doing that at all, like they're going to have some really bright futures.
01:14:12
Speaker
All right, number nine here. This is gonna be a very personal one for me. Aussie opening against the Briscoes at House of Glory in October. No reason why, just another member of my family falling in love with wrestling and generally improving my enjoyment of it for a long time probably. No, that was a sweet moment for everybody. I think even that warmed our hearts.
Memorable Matches & Anticipation
01:14:38
Speaker
So I wish, yeah, I wish you the best. Also a banger match.
01:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was. That was a good match. That was a Fight TV Plus one, I think we got to watch. That was one of the first things I think you watched on Fight Plus, Gary, because that was right after. Fight Plus, one of the gifts. I think that was the first thing I saw on Fight Plus, because I was not able to attend in person.
01:15:01
Speaker
And the final, and maybe this might be number one at the end of the day when we look back on this year, and that's FTR against the Briscoes, the dog collar match. Cause holy fuck, sweet Jesus, what a wrestling match that was. And I want to go back, I'm excited to go back and watch that trilogy again a bunch of times probably.
01:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's one I am happy that I actually purchased on Bleacher Report, so I have the ability to go back and rewatch it as I please. I love that you think that Bleacher Report app is going to allow you to do that. Just the naivety that that shows. You won't believe this. They even carried over the old shit when they switched to the new system. All my stuff is there. They didn't lose it yet, but it's there. Claims to me.
01:15:54
Speaker
Maybe we can start ordering AWP reviews through Honor Club in the future because I think I had more luck with that in the past. Fair enough. Also, one honorable mention because I just don't know if it happened this year. Braun versus EC3 from Control Your Narrative 2. There's just really nothing like watching grown men cry. There's a lot of wife fucking. There was not between Braun, but just honestly,
01:16:22
Speaker
EC3 versus that locker room mentally. And you guys still haven't finished the...
01:16:30
Speaker
the the painful present on on Pro Wrestling TV because I and I will not spoil it for you guys but who boy things happen at the end of that and uh but we got we got more podcast episodes to do. I will rewatch it but I think that's dishonorable mentioned. That's really depends on your perspective at the end of the day. It it is true. That is a that is an entire roster of people who were
01:17:00
Speaker
who had dishonorable discharge from the WWE. And you know what? That does bring up, though. I want to go to a silver lining is that we thought a guy that was probably going to end up there and instead is kind of like, I want to welcome back Brian Cage from witness protection. I know that mob boss he saw kill that guy died of natural causes in jail. So he's back can be on television again. Welcome back, Brian. We missed. Yeah.
01:17:28
Speaker
I really did miss that guy like once he started having matches again it kind of he was one of my favorites in PWG he was always a nice guy he's very reliable at putting on a good match you know and he has that thing where he just is is unique right he is an n of one like there's no one else so he's obviously physically super jacked but doesn't look then does like
01:17:50
Speaker
crazy shit and can work matches and uh I love him I love him to pieces and I'm glad I he was the guy that he was always the top guy in like lower feds and like I'm glad to see that maybe he'll get a shot to be a top guy at a top fed finally
01:18:09
Speaker
The top vet, of course, being Ring of Honor. Yeah, I mean, but seriously, Ring of Honor could be good. I don't know. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm bullish on the new Ring of Honor. Is that... Do you think it... Oh, sorry. Garrett, do you have all your awards done? Have we gotten through all your awards? No, we do have a few more here.
01:18:34
Speaker
The next award is for the top wrestler I'd like to sit on a bench with at the mall, eat an Auntie Anne's pretzel and make fun of the people that pass by. And that award goes to Daddy Magic. You would think it may be MJF, but
01:18:57
Speaker
He's going to hurt my feelings by the end of the day. We're going to leave in separate cars. I'm going to not have a good time. Me and Daddy Magic are going to have that pretzel. It's going to be great. And he's like he's going to be the Statler to my Waldorf in that moment. And I just feel I feel like there would be a good chemistry. Yeah. Daddy Magic was one of my favorite. Look, he he and
01:19:19
Speaker
And Parker on the, um, on control your narrative too was low key. One of my favorite sort of bizarre wrestling things, uh, from this year. Maybe when we finally edge our way into becoming the commentary team for Appalachian, we can get him to come join us. Cause I would love, I'd love to watch a beast man match with him. Yes. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now we've got more life goals. I guess we're going to have to keep going.
01:19:46
Speaker
Okay, only a couple more. The next one is the bud of the year. Like the good friend, the buddy, the guy who was there for his pal didn't back down no matter what. Was it the best friends? Wasn't. Was it you guys? No. The answer is a steal. Because in that moment, no matter how wrong his friend was,
01:20:14
Speaker
He took it upon himself to bite the greatest living wrestler in the world. And he knew, I might not have a job at the end of this, but my buddy is in distress. My buddy's dog's in distress, and I'm gonna bite that motherfucker. So he gets the butt of the year award. Like, a steal is a ride or die till the end. He's unemployed. So if anybody is looking for a guy who, I don't wanna say he's problematic, but he is,
01:20:45
Speaker
He could be an issue. He could be an issue. We know he's unemployed because he somehow made it this far in life. There's no way he's made a living through wrestling. He's got to have some secondary skills he's been paying the bills with the last 40 something years. He's a Twitch streamer.
01:21:06
Speaker
He's playing Atari. He's just like, I can get you to the end of this fucking E.T. game. No problem. He just has he has like an OnlyFans page where they just request him to eat different things. And take pictures of the bite mark. Yeah. He's he's like, OK, guys, a steal here. We're doing the the Taki one chip challenge. I got my milk ready. I don't know where, you know,
01:21:35
Speaker
Nikolai got this plutonium from, but I guess we're gonna be eating it shortly, because he gave a $15 donation, a five star review. He's actually, he's number one this year in terms of money through those sites is Mandy Rose, and he's actually number two. It's very down low, but like hundreds of dollars of people paying him to buy things. Okay, each time. I do have one left.
01:22:03
Speaker
So we did butt of the year. Next, putt of the year. Who gets overall putt? Who is the dirt worst? The person who just is despicable, who is the dick, who don't wanna be around him, but like talking about him. Is it Vince McMahon? Is it he's steel? Does he go back to back? Does he, yeah, does he get, does he, ah.
01:22:30
Speaker
Man, that could have been good, but he is such a good friend that it's hard to call him a dick. You need that guy in your corner. He's a pud, he just made me not of the year. He's a top 10 pud. It is not seeing punk. Is it Rick Flair for surviving? That seems like a pud. Stole all of our money. No, it goes to Glenn Jacobs.
01:22:58
Speaker
He just didn't feel right to not have him on this list. We've been doing PUD of the Year before we brought the podcast back. Right. They were untelevised award ceremonies.
01:23:15
Speaker
I saw him complaining about like drag shows and then somebody posted a video of him like bitching about that next to a video of him hooking Shane McMahon's balls up to a jumper cables. It was like, you did this asshole like witches.
01:23:33
Speaker
Uh, what a fucking putt, maybe Kid Rock is a runner up on that. I don't know. But yeah, those, those are my awards for the year. And, um, I look forward to revisiting seeing who gets the pants one next year. Uh, it's yeah. I'm going to be looking at it. I feel like I'm going to be watching for pants now much more, uh, uh, closely.
01:23:54
Speaker
It wouldn't have been right to not give the inaugural award to Cole himself. I feel like a put down because I just thought of an award but I don't have enough time to think about it. It would be best to advertise Jonathan Gresham match that didn't happen. That's the one I would have been. I should have done some research. There's just so many contenders.
Battle Bowl & New Year Plans
01:24:15
Speaker
Most of them looked really good on paper. They all do. Like every time you see like, yeah, I'd watch that match.
01:24:23
Speaker
Um, Jesus Christ. I don't know. Is that what do we have? Uh, we have anything else? I think we have recap the year and we're ready for, uh, we're ready to, I do like for the beginning for 2023 is Mojo that we can walk into 2023 and we're going to get beast man at like two o'clock in the afternoon that day. I feel like that's exciting. That's a good omen for 2023.
01:24:49
Speaker
That, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I actually kind of forgot that like we get him so early, you know, you're going to wake up, maybe you have a little bit of a headache from the night before, but you get a cup of coffee, you've eaten a breakfast burrito. I don't know what you're doing. Beastman on your television. The not J Cup. What is the Battle Bowl? Battle Bowl.
01:25:09
Speaker
Yeah. What is that? Is it a tournament? Is it a? It's a it's a mixed tag. It's like so it's a random pairing tag team tournament where the winners of the first round matches then have a battle royal to see who the battle bull champion is.
01:25:22
Speaker
That's battle ball. At least at least it was in WCW. I feel like this one, it might not be random pairings. I thought that they did advertise some of the actual tag matches. So I think, but they advertise some of the tag teams though. So I don't know if they're going to break them up or not, or who knows it's JCW, whatever. It's free on YouTube. I just, I just love this, you know, new year's day on a Sunday. So that means work gives you off the Monday instead. You know, you've got two days to just kind of recover and just watch a lot of wrestling.
01:25:52
Speaker
I'm probably gonna go to have brunch at Comfortland that day. The Briskos have not let me know if they'll be joining me yet, but they might, they know where to find me. And I think it's gonna be delicious, guys. And then I'm gonna go home and watch some Beastman. I am so looking forward to that. Honestly, there's good matches on both of the GCW shows as well. I think specifically there's one night that has a little bit better.
01:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, buy a TV plus. Gonna watch any of the wrestling they provide me with at this point. But, um, yeah, we also, by the way, like Kenny Omega and Will Osprey. That's a, that's a thing that we get to see a couple of days after that. Well, yeah, I guess there's that. Now that'll be, that'll be, God, we've got stuff to look forward to. It's, you know,
01:26:36
Speaker
2022 is pretty good. I am glad that Beastman happened to make this possible. This is something I look forward to every week. It has been great getting to connect with you guys more often and just goof around and chat wrestling. It's been great and thanks everybody for listening. This has been a fun year. I'm glad we're back doing this because this is
01:26:59
Speaker
This is great. This is a lot of fun. I can't wait to. Beastman is going to be going against in the Tokyo Dome next January 4th. Yeah, it's been it's been great doing doing this podcast. No, no notes, no notes. Yeah, it's been great. Thank you. Thank you all for your for your friendship. And that's both you two and the listeners. If you if you're listening to us every week, it's like you're you're hanging out with us and you're part of the gang. So I was happy to hear from those people and
01:27:29
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for, thank you for keeping us going. And seriously, check out those otter videos. They're, they're amazing. Check out those otter videos. Rate, review, subscribe at predetermined podcast on Instagram at guard Ted on Instagram. Chris is at Chris Miggs facts is Jimmy Lloyd's IMDB page. That's right. And on that note, hit our goddamn music.